Affomix to Provide Antibodies for Kalgene Pharmaceutical's Therapeutic and Companion Diagnostics Program
BRANFORD, Conn. - (Business Wire) Affomix Corporation, a pioneer in the development of automated, high-throughput monoclonal antibody selection technology, announced today that Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. has signed a commercial agreement to have Affomix utilize its Y2HExpressTM technology to select antibodies with potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility in breast cancer. Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a private company focused on the development of oncology therapeutics and companion diagnostics. The company's portfolio of oncology products is at various stages in development, from assay development to advanced clinical trials.
Under the terms of the agreement Affomix will generate antibodies against several proprietary targets selected by Kalgene. Affomix will utilize its Y2HExpressTM technology for the selection of single-chain antibodies with substantially increased throughput, and specificity, over conventional Y2H and alternative antibody selection methodologies. Financial terms of the service agreement were not disclosed, nor were the financial milestones related to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
"After much diligence, Kalgene chose Affomix as the company to rapidly procure antibodies against our proprietary targets", said Dr. T. Nathan Yoganathan, President and CEO of Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. "Y2HExpressTM has the ability to select antibodies at an unprecedented level of specificity, combined with very favorable financial advantages," Yoganathan continued.
"The application of Affomix technology will accelerate our product development schedule", said Robert Davidson, Director of Science and Technology for Kalgene.
"Affomix is pleased to be working with Kalgene, a pharmaceutical company executing a strategy of therapeutic development in conjunction with companion diagnostic development," said John Boyce, Head of Business Development for Affomix and Co-Founder of Delphi Bio, LLC. "Our technology and business model offers substantial incentives for developers of therapeutic and diagnostic products".
"Our automated high-throughput procedures allow us to quickly identify highly specific antibodies against predetermined regions of target proteins. These antibodies are well suited for experimental use while serving as ideal starting points for development of diagnostic and therapeutic agents", said Michael Sherman, President of Affomix.
About Affomix
Affomix is an emerging leader in the antibody technology space, with high throughput methodologies to select, at an unprecedented rate, antibodies against unmodified as well as post-translationally modified proteins. These proprietary technologies will allow the company to achieve its ultimate objective of generating the human AffomeTM, a comprehensive set of antibodies that can be used to detect and quantify all proteins in the human proteome.
Utilizing these and other proprietary technologies, Affomix is positioned to commercialize, and enable the commercialization of, products that are at the convergence of genomics and proteomics.
About Kalgene
Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately-held Canadian company focused on the development of oncology therapeutics and companion diagnostics. The company's pipeline of oncology products are at various stages of research and development. Its diagnostic programs are aimed at improving clinical and survival outcomes through the use of personalized medicine, with a particular focus on molecular diagnostic testing for breast, bladder, epithelial and thyroid cancers. Kalgene is partnering with many of North America's leading clinician-scientists and academic institutions to deliver personalized cancer therapeutics and diagnostics that optimize patient treatment outcomes.
Robert Davidson works with Kalgene through his own company, Enlighten Clinical Diagnostic Associates Inc.
Forward Looking Statements:
Forward-looking statements discussed herein are based on current expectations of management of Affomix Corporation and Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. that involve substantial risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements.
Affomix Corporation
John Boyce, 617-285-2848
[email protected]